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Acropolis, Athens, Greece. Author Gary Todd.

Top 10 Intriguing Facts about Acropolis Museum

The Acropolis Museum is an archaeological museum. It focuses on findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens.

It was built to house every artefact found on the rock and the surrounding slopes from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Greece. Acropolis museum lies over the harms of part of Roman and early Byzantine Athens.

It was founded in 2003 while the Organization of the Museum was organized in 2008, later it opened to the public on 20 June 2009.

Let’s learn more about The Acropolis Museum

1. Several Competitions were Held to Determine the Museum’s Design

The first architectural competition to design a new museum was held in 1976 and was limited to participants from Greece. The competition was followed by that of  1979. However, it failed to produce any results mainly because the plots of land selected for the proposed constructions were considered unsuitable.

There was the third competition in 1989 for the design of the new Acropolis Museum. it was announced that it would be international.  A choice of three possible sites was provided. This competition was won by the Italian architects, Manfredi Nicoletti and Lucio Passarelli.

After delays throughout the 1990s ended, work on the construction of the museum was based on this third design. It progressed to the stage of excavations for the foundations. However, the construction was stopped due to sensitive archaeological remains on the site. This led to the annulment of the competition in 1999.

The fourth competition had made no provision for the preservation of the ancient site. These were met after local and international campaigners exposed this oversight and it became the final competition.

2. Several Disputes Occurred during the Construction of the New Museum

Controversies erupted over the plans for the new museum. There were disagreements about whether it was appropriate to build it on the archaeological site in the Makrygianni neighbourhood. Another concern was whether a large modern building would fit well into the landscape.

In 2007, another controversy erupted over the proposed demolition of two historic buildings. They are in front of the museum facing the Acropolis.

Bernard Tschumi has been showing photographic images of the space in front of the museum edited to remove the two buildings and nearby four-story-tall trees. Protests against the proposed demolition came from international agencies.

3. The Museum Managed to Acquire Various Awards

On 13 May 2010, it was awarded the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) Award for Excellence and Sustainability.

On 8 November 2010, the Museum won the British Guild of Travel Writers (BGTW) award. This was in the Globe category for the Best Worldwide Tourism Project for 2010.

The Museum received the 2011 AIA (The American Institute of Architects) Institute Honor Award for Architecture. It was among the six finalists competing for the 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – the Mies van der Rohe Award.

The Museum was given the Keck Award in 2012 for its conservation and restoration of the Caryatids by the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) in Vienna. The Museum was ranked 6th in TripAdvisor’s Travellers Choice Awards of the 25 Best Museums in the world in 2018.

4. The Museum Building is of Various Properties

Acropolis_museum. Author Paolo Gamba.

The collections of the museum are exhibited on three levels. Amazingly, the fourth middle level houses auxiliary spaces such as the museum shop, the café, and the offices.

on the first level, visitors will find the slopes of the Acropolis of the museum. The long and rectangular hall has a sloping floor, which resembled the ascension to the rock.

After the hall, there is a large trapezoidal hall that contains the archaic findings. On the same floor, there are artefacts and sculptures from the other Acropolis buildings such as the Erechtheum, the Temple of Athena Nike, and the Propylaea and findings from Roman and early Christian Athens.

Visitors are intended to see the latter during descent to keep the chronological order. Visitors are usually directed to the top level first, which displays the Parthenon marbles.

The use of glass walls on all four exterior walls allows the natural light to illumine the Parthenon marble. The 48 columns in the Parthenon hallmark the outline of the ancient temple and form a colonnade for the display of the Parthenon marble.

For easy viewing, the pediment marbles are displayed at eye level in front of the end columns. The metopes are displayed on the columns, two per column, but not as high as in the ancient temple. From the north side of the Parthenon hall, one can see the ancient temple above the Acropolis.

As the museum is built over an extensive archaeological site, some parts of the floor use glass to allow visitors to see the excavations below. Additionally, the museum also has an amphitheatre, virtual theatre, and a hall for temporary exhibitions.

5. The Museum Celebrated the August full moon with Free Entry

The Acropolis Museum in Athens celebrated the August full moon with free entry after 9 pm. Amazingly, a special music performance by the historic Hellenic Air Force Band.

On this occasion, the museum remained open from 8 am to 12 midnight with free entry for all visitors from 9 pm onwards. This allowed the visitors to stroll through the galleries to enjoy the view of the Acropolis under the moonlight.

6. Former US president  made a Visit to the Acropolis Museum

Acropolis Museum. Author Azniv Stepanian.

President Obama entered the Acropolis citadel through the Propylaea. He walked along the Parthenon. It was the temple which was dedicated to the goddess Athena.

The 5th Century B.C. Parthenon temple was built by Ictinus. President Obama enjoyed an amazing view of the Greek capital. The whole site was closed for his visit. Although the President travelled solo, without his family, he visited two of the top family attractions in Athens.

7. Samsung Inaugurated a Digital Classroom at the Acropolis Museum

The digital classroom is addressed to students of primary and secondary schools. This digital classroom was the first to be set up in a Museum in Greece and the fifth in Europe.

 The Digital Classroom initiative was launched to explore the impact technology has on teaching and learning, helping to address the digital skills gap in the UK. Feedback from the schools participating in the programme revealed that pupils demonstrated high engagement with lessons.

They were more motivated and showed marked improvement in grade achievement. Teacher confidence also improved and teaching practices changed over time, with children increasingly able to work independently and collaboratively.

8. The Acropolis Museum was also a Place where other Museums Lent for various Activities

Acropolis_Museum. Author Matthiasberlin.

Starting from October 2014 to February 2015 the Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art in Vienna lend the Acropolis Museum a quadriga with the goddess Nike from the collection of Theophil Hansen. 

From December 2014 to Dec 2015 The University of Sydney’s Nicholson Museum lent to the Acropolis Museum a model of the Acropolis done in Lego. The model contains more than 120,000 Lego bricks and took about 300 hours to build by Ryan McNaught.

In addition, the Hermitage Museum lent from March 2016 to October 2016 to the Acropolis Museum three golden Scythian exhibitions. The three objects were two vessels and a piece of jewellery. These arts of metalworking were crafted by the Greeks in Crimea that had developed a close connection with the Scythians.

9. The fourteenth Edition of the Art Exhibition took Place in the Acropolis museum

Starting from March 24 to October 31, 2017, Documenta 14, the fourteenth edition of the art exhibition Documenta took place at the Acropolis Museum

Document 14 was the fourteenth edition of the art exhibition documenta and took place in 2017 in both Kassel, Germany, its traditional home, and Athens, Greece

 It was held first in Athens from 8 April to 16 July, and in Kassel from 10 June to 17 September 2017. As part of the concept of the artistic director Adam Szymczyk, the exhibition proceeded in both countries with the most featured artists working at both locations.

10. The Acropolis Museum is Built on Risky Unstable Limestone

The limestone that the Acropolis is built upon is unstable because of the erosion and tectonic shifts that the region is prone to. This instability can cause rock slides that cause damage to the historic site.

This forced various measures to be implemented to protect the site including retaining walls, drainage systems and rock bolts. These measures work to counter the natural processes that threaten the historic site.